Beads to Buckskins

The center of our attention is on the cradleboard of the North American Indian in this volume. The cradleboard designs shown are of different tribes, primarily the plains or Mid-America regions. Certain structural styles were usually related to a specific tribe or nation. We have focused on beadwork as will as structural form to help identify the tribe or nation of origin. Cradleboards serve a dual purpose. They shelter the child from the elements, while freeing the mothers hands for other chores. The cradleboards were sometimes tied to a tree, a safe distance up from the ground, to avoid predators and other dangers, while mother worked. The board was worn on mothers back while walking or riding a horse, much like the modern backpack. It kept the baby's back straight for health purposes and gave the baby a sense of security.

Indian women took great pride in their children. They decorated their clothes and cradleboards as elaborately as their bead supply would allow. The Indian mother was responsible for the training of the boy child from infancy through primary age. Then the father or male relatives took over and manhood training began. The girl child remained close to her mother and was trained in the ways of homemaking which included beading, tanning and making cradleboards. Cradleboards were passed down from baby to baby and generation to generation. Some of the boards have beadwork that began in the early 1800's and was finished several children and decades later by new generations of mothers. The beadwork of others may not be aboriginal, but rather an imitation of a European design as glass beads found their way across the plains.

Above are wonderful construction and beadwork done by some equally talented artist and great friends and they have sheared their work with us. I hope you too can use these exquisite piece's of work for your beading ideas and above all, FUN!!! I want to thank each and every one of these talented beader's for shearing there great ideas and talent with us; "The beading world".